The Daughter of a Pirate
by puffgrace
Summary: A young Celeste spends her time trying to find a man by the name of Killian who her mother swore, on her death bed, was the young girl's father. But between her father's new family and trying to avoid her stepfather will she ever be reunited with this mysterious biological father?
1. Chapter 1

**This is just a little story that I've been working on. I think the more I work on it the better idea I'll have of just where it's going haha. Let me know what you think. This is kind of a background chapter to the story. The actual story will take place after the events of season three, excluding the Frozen piece. **

**The Enchanted Forest pre-curse**

The raven haired young woman stepped into her mother and step-father's cabin only to be stopped by the ominous feeling that lingered inside. Her step father, Erik, sat at the table with a half empty bottle of gin next to him.

"What did you do," the girl whispered as she slowly set down her basket full of goods that she had just traded for at the market.

"Your mother," he snarled. Before he could say another word, the young girl darted into the large bedroom to find her mother's fragile form sunk deep into the bed. Where once her mother had been like a porcelain doll with features that stood out to everyone, she now looked old, grey, and devoid of the laughter that her daughter could hear throughout the cabin on a good day. The young daughter could barely recognize the similarities between mother and daughter. The pale skin now looked greyish, her dark green eyes now seemed foggy, and it was all happening too fast. It had been only a couple weeks since her mother had gotten sick, Erik hadn't bothered to do much about it since he said that they had little money to spare on medicine that might not work. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with her, only that it would spread to the rest of the family if they weren't careful.

"Mo-mother," the young girl questioned as she kneeled by her mother's bedside.  
"Celeste? Is that my daughter, Erik? Oh my sweet," her voice was nothing but a whisper as her frail hand searched for her daughter's face.

"Mother…mother please I'm right here," Celeste said trying to choke back the tears as she prepared to watch her mother die in front of her. Clearly, her mother's husband didn't seem to care as he was still sitting in the main room of the house drinking away at the gin.

"Celeste, I need to tell you…tell you where to find him. You need to know who he is." Celeste watched in pain as her mother tried desperately to sit up and reach for the drawer of her bedside table.

"Mother please stop, le-let me help you."

"There's a picture in there of a young man," her mother whispered between coughing fits, "You need to find him…find Killian. Tell him Loretta wanted you to meet him."

Killian? Celeste had never had that name before, but looking down at the picture she couldn't help but feel some kind of connection to it. The picture revealed a stern looking man covered in leather and a slight scruff that covered the lower half of his face. Now that she took a closer look at him; the hair color, the jaw line, and the thinner frame. It all looked very familiar.

"Mother…..is this?"

"Celeste, this is your father, your real father. Please get out there and find him. I can't leave you parentless." Before Celeste could begin to cry, she felt the familiar cold grip on her shoulder and turned back to face her stepfather.

"Don't worry Loretta," he whispered, as the grip on Celeste's shoulder got tighter, "she always has me."

"No Erik, let her go…..she has…has to," but her mother never finished the sentence. Instead, the light slowly drained from her eyes and her chest ceased to move up and down. Before Celeste could even comprehend what was happening, Erik had grabbed her off the floor and flung her over his shoulder. Kicking and screaming, she watched as the figure of her mother disappeared from view.

"LET ME GO. YOU CAN'T DO THIS. YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER," she screamed as she felt herself thrown out onto the dirt. Before she could even begin to check for scratches, Erik had picked her up again and slammed her body into the side of the house.

"If you think for one second I'm just going to let you walk away then you must be dumber than I thought. I saved you and your whore of a mother. If it hadn't been for me you two would have been sitting on the side of the market begging for pocket change. Now look what she's done to me! All I have is a disease ridden house and a bastard who doesn't know her place," he spat before pushing back towards their small horse and wagon that sat by the side of the road. "I'm not about to let you go wandering off before I get some kind of use out of you," he muttered and looked towards the small lantern that sat on the side of the wagon.

It didn't take but a few seconds for Celeste to realize what he was going to do and she quickly sat up to try and grab the lantern before he did. But she was too late. Erik grabbed the lantern and threw it against the side of the house. It hit the dry grass sitting next to the house, and within seconds Celeste was watching her house begin to burn.

"We need to get out of here," her step father said casually as he pulled Celeste and himself into the wagon and grabbed the reigns of the horse. As the wagon began to lurch forward, Celeste lay down on the wagon floor and pulled out the picture that had been crumpled and stuffed hastily into the top portion of her corset.

"Killian….Loretta sent me to find you. Killian…..Loretta sent me to find you," she muttered to herself over and over again. It wasn't too long before she was beginning to doze off. Erik and Celeste never heard the warning about a possible threat to the kingdom, they never heard the warning bells of imminent threat making its way through their part of the forest, and Celeste never noticed the purple smoke that soon enveloped her and her step father as they were transported to a brand new place.


	2. Chapter 2 - Finding a way

**Sorry, that second chapter just didn't feel right. I kept going back and forth with how it needed to be written and I finally had to redo this chapter. **

"I cannot believe she gave me detention."

"You're joking right? You totally deserved it, Merida."

"I did not!"

"You know, if you constantly asked me if I had any severe head injuries from rolling down a hill I would give you detention too."

This was how conversations between the two best friends always went. Before the curse had been lifted, she had been Elizabeth Marcum. The most popular girl in school; a truly terrifying human being. However, once the curse was lifted and the Scottish accent came back with a vengeance she became Merida. While it had been hard for Celeste to deal with the aftermath of the curse being lifted, she knew that Merida had gone through practically putting her entire family back together and yet the redhead still had time invite her new friend over for dinner. Typically as a rule, Celeste never shared too much about her own life with others around her, but she always made sure to keep Merida close.

"Mum wants to know when you can come over again for dinner."

"Well, Eric shouldn't mind if I miss one family meal. Maybe tomorrow night? I have to babysit for Mr. Jefferson tonight." A small part of the young girl wanted to pull Merida aside right there and then and just tell her everything about her mother, her stepfather, and what she had been dealing with. However, that was really the last thing that Celeste wanted people to know about. "Speaking of babysitting, here she comes."

Looking over as a little girl crossed the road to come running towards us, Celeste smiled and held her arms out for the very obvious hug that was about to happen. She loved babysitting Grace, the young girl was the closest thing that she would ever have to a little sister. The two girls had met in a Storybrooke school wide counseling group, for those whose family situations had changed drastically after the curse had been lifted. Turned out that her real father, Jefferson, was the landlord for the small house that Celeste and her stepfather had been living in for the past 28 years. After thanking Celeste for being there for her daughter, Jefferson offered to let the two of them live there rent free so long as Celeste babysat for Grace while he was busy with his work.

"Well Merida, Grace and I are going to go make some soup and do some homework," Trying her best to ignore the eye roll from Grace, she waved goodbye to her best friend and turned herself and the young girl in the direction of the Jefferson household.

"You know Celeste, I don't have any homework on the weekends."

"No homework huh? Darn it, I guess we'll have to make cookies and watch Netflix until your dad gets home." Dogs two towns over could have heard the squeal that erupted from her mouth as Grace ran towards home, with Celeste attempting to keep up with her.

It was four hours later that Grace passed out on the couch to another episode of Adventure Time. These were the quiet moments where Celeste knew she could get some kind of work done.

Before she knew it the young girl found herself in Jefferson's secret room. The long white shelves on the wall, holding onto every failed attempt at his magic hat that he possessed, but it wasn't the hat that Celeste was looking for. Quietly, she slipped over to his desk and began the same search that she had been carrying on with for months now. Nothing but simple bobbles, needles, thread, and a few broken spools laid in waste in the main drawer of his desk. The same items that had already been found weeks before.

"Damnit," she shouted sitting back in the desk chair.

"I'm sorry Miss Celeste, but have the contents of my drawer disappointed you?" Out into the doorway popped Grace's father.

"I…shit..no! I'm sorry Mr. Jefferson please I didn't….I was just trying to look for something I….please don't tell my step-father" She tried to bite her lip in some kind of attempt at keeping the tears at bay but it wasn't working. Even Jefferson's attempt at comforting her made her wince.

_Don't wince, it's just Jefferson_

"Please Celeste, you're in no trouble. Although, I would suggest working on your sleuthing skills especially when putting stuff back in the right spot in my desk." Nodding quietly in answer to the man, she quietly sat back in the desk chair. Celeste knew where this was going and what it all meant; no more babysitting, Eric would have to pay rent, and the girl might as well be dead right here in this room.

"All I want to know is why." Shocked at his reaction to the events that had accidently spilled out in front of him, she struggled to find the reason behind why she had even been here.

"I just…I was trying to…..Grace's mother, do you guys…did any of her belongings you know, pass over?" As soon as those words came tumbling out of her mouth she regretted them, watching Jefferson's expression fall quickly she had to remind herself that she was not the only that had lost someone who the curse couldn't bring back. If only she could get the man to realize just how important these items were. Didn't he know how important it was for Grace to have some things from her mother?

"Celeste….does this have anything to do with your fa-

"STEP-FATHER," Celeste screamed, before placing her hands over her mouth in shock of how loud she had been. "Please sir, did her things pass over because if…if they did then that means my mom…..and her things and I just need to know please please," before anymore could be said, Celeste found herself gasping between tears. Jefferson tried his best to console the sobbing girl, but nothing short of having an answer could help her out now. IFor a while everything was quiet, so quiet that Celeste could even hear the television downstairs still playing Grace's show. Eventually, the floor underneath her feet began to creak with the sound of Jefferson standing up and gently push the chair that she was sitting in further back towards the wall of failed hats.

"I have her locket, it wasn't easy but I got it back," he whispered, pulling out a recent picture of his daughter wearing the locket that he must have been talking about. The small heart shaped locket hung gently from Grace's neck. It seemed funny just how important some of these items could turn out to be, but a part of Celeste began to burn with jealously over the simple little locket. She had nothing to remember her mother by. Not a damn thing. "From what I could figure out with the curse….with both of these curses, is that if it wasn't in your immediate position then it could be anywhere in this town. If you weren't holding onto it, or even touching it, then it's most likely here, but it's going to take you some time to find."

"I don't….I don't have a lot of time sir. It's just that, there's something that I need to find because there's someone I need to find." Celeste stopped herself before she gave away too much information. The last thing that she needed was for Jefferson to go muttering to Eric. It's not that she didn't trust him, but she just knew better than to trust anyone at this point.

"Okay, well there's only one store here in town that might be able to help you out."

"What store is that sir?"

"Mr. Gold's shop."

**Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your reviews and any thoughts on where you think this story is heading. I've got a plan in mind but I'm always open to ideas about what my readers want to see.**


	3. Chapter 3 - The Picture

CPOV

"_Just open the door. Just open the door and kindly ask where it is. Oh JUST DO IT!"_

Celeste stood frozen in her spot right in front of the door to Mr. Gold's shop. Everyone knew what the old man was like, and how he basically controlled the town in his own special way during the curse. Obviously things had changed since everyone had gotten their lives back, but there still seemed to be an air of mystery around the store. When she finally swallowed her fears she grabbed the door knob and pushed the door open gently. Once the doorbell rang, she saw a mop of brown hair pop up from behind a glass counter top.

"Oh well, hello there. Can I help you with anything?" It was almost like Belle could read the desperation written across the young girl's face as Celeste edged closer to the desk. The fact that Belle was here instead of her husband had to be a good sign, right?

"Yes, I was just trying to find a few items that I lost after the um….the trip back here." Belle's smile began to falter a little bit as she moved from behind the counter closer to Celeste and nodded, "I'm afraid my husband doesn't have everything but…well we can try. What's the name?"

"Well you see, I'm kind of looking for someone else's items…..my mother's items. Mostly just a few papers, pictures, or something like that. Her name was Loretta Malcoff. She….she won't be able to pick them up herself." And there it was, the look. Mrs. Gold's eyes oozed that sympathy look, that look that practically begged Celeste to forgive Belle for making the girl relive the fact that her mother had died. Celeste hated that look more than anything. None of them knew Loretta, none of them knew what she was like before she got sick. Celeste would never understand how someone could feel sorry for someone they never knew.

Once Bella had pointed her in the right direction, Celeste spent the larger portion of the next hour combing through a rather large bookshelf hidden away in the corner of the antique store. Terrified that she would end up ruining anyone else's chances of reconnecting with family, she gently took each book and picture out of the shelf, realized it wasn't what she wanted, and carefully placed it back. At one point she almost wanted to give up hope, but her current situation must have been glaringly obvious to those around her because soon Belle walked over with a small china cup filled with warm tea.

"Wow umm thank you Mrs. Gold," Celeste murmured trying to sit down on the ground so she wouldn't worry about spilling the tea.

"Call me Belle sweetheart, and take as much time as you need." She reminded Celeste of her mother, kind and always so inviting to those she barely knew, but spending time in memory lane wasn't going to help Celeste find what she came here to get. It had been half way through the small cup of tea when a small black journal caught her eye. Down in the second to last shelf of the bookcase, one that she hadn't had the chance to comb through yet, sat a small black journal with something crudely written into the spine of the book. Setting the glass down behind her, Celeste carefully used two fingers to wiggle the journal out of its' small space. It took a little bit of work but soon the journal bent to her wishes and began to slowly slide out of the bookshelf and into the young girl's hands. Quickly turning the book so that the spine was facing her, she almost screamed when she noticed that the letters L.M. were carved into the side of the book. This had to be her mother's journal, or at least it might have some kind of information about her. She had barely started combing through the pages when she recognized the neat and slanted scrawl of her mother's handwriting; she'd remember that handwriting anywhere. Just as she thought that she had found all she could, a small piece of paper fell out of the middle of the book. Celeste was almost scared to flip it over, knowing in her mind what it very well could be. Gently flipping it over, a shiver ran up her spine as her guess became correct. Looking up at her from the picture was the same man that her mother had made her daughter promise to find, her father.

"Did you find it dear?" The voice made Celeste stand up quickly as she tried to put everything back together from her little game of detective. She grabbed the picture quickly and stuffed it into her pocket before the woman in front of her could make any kind of comment about it.

"Um yes…yeah I found my mother's journal. I think that's all I need though umm…..how much will this little book be? I mean, I don't have a lot of money but I cou-" The whole time she spoke, she tried to find the small amount of single dollar bills and pocket change that were always crudely stuffed into whatever pair of jeans she had worn that day. It wasn't too long into the search when she found Belle placing her hand on her shoulder and shooting her another one of those warm friendly smiles.

"Don't worry about. After all, if it was your mother's then you should have had it this whole time. If you need anything else just stop on by." Celeste would have taken the time to hug the woman right there if she hadn't been excited to get back to her room to read the journal. However, she didn't make it past the doorway of the store before her own excitement made her blind to the person trying to get into the antique shop and they collided with a big cracking sound as Celeste fell to the ground.

"Oh my gosh," she muttered, grabbing her journal that had fallen and the cane that must have been owned by the person she ran into, "I am so sorry…..sir." Of all the people to run into it had to be Mr. Gold. He stood there idly, gazing down at the girl as if she were some simple rain puddle that he had accidently stepped in on his way to work; she was just something else in his way.

"Maybe next time you'll watch where you're going miss?" She mumbled in agreement as she handed him his cane and went on to promise that this sort of thing would never happen again. As she met his eyes, something in the man before her changed. Celeste watched in terrified wonder as the color started to leave Mr. Gold's face, his eyes began to fill with what appeared to be anger and terror at the same time, and she could practically watch his lips press together into one thin line.

"And just who might you be?" he asked between gritted teeth as he continued to look at her up and down. Celeste did her best to avoid any sort of eye contact.

"Celeste Malcoff," she whispered, but as soon as the last name came out of her mouth it was as if he no longer held any interest in her, or the item from his shop that she possessed.

"It'd be a shame if Mr. Malcoff knew just how rude his daughter was out in public."

_Get out of there now_

Celeste did her best to get home without looking like she was panicking. The last thing she needed was for someone to try and stop her by asking if anything was wrong. After all, where would she even begin? Soon the small home came into view, but so did the rather large red truck that sat in the drive way. She didn't know why she was so nervous. After all, it was already past 5 and there was a large chance that he was already drunk and watching some kind of sports channel. However, she wasn't that lucky. Not even a minute after she entered the door, she greeted by a rough slap to the right side of her face. It wasn't too bad, she tried to whisper quietly to herself, it wasn't hard enough to cause a serious bruise.

"Where the hell have you been?" His voice was the one the one that filled all of her dreams. Her stepfather, Eric or Daniel as he had gone by before the curse, was already pretty sloppy. The half empty bottle of Jack Daniels that sat by his armchair told her that it wouldn't be too bad of a night. At least he hadn't finished off the bottle yet, it could be worse.

"I'm sorry sir, I had to go to the library for a project with Merida and a couple other people." The lies came so easy to her now, she would do anything she could to protect herself from any further torture.

"Well next time call, you idiot. Damnit you realize that if you get into any kind of trouble it comes back on me? You want to screw up our whole situation?!" He was off on another rant again. It always happened after she did something wrong, which was happening more often as time passed. As long as he had his alcohol, his hunting license, and his reputation as a somewhat decent father figure then nothing else really mattered. No one knew about his little hunting binges, the ones where he would disappear into the woods around the town for a week or two at a time. Celeste knew that another one of those trips would be coming up soon, but she also knew that he had found the money that she had been hiding for food and spent it all on new equipment. That had cost her a black eye and a lot of time away from school.

Once he was back in his armchair, Celeste was able to safely sneak away to her bedroom and lock the door behind her. It wasn't anything fancy, definitely not the kind of room that she envisioned for herself. The walls were a plain white and most of the furniture in the room, like the rest of the house, was falling apart. She had taken to sleeping on her mattress that now rested on the floor after she sold the bedframe for food money during Eric's last hunting binge. She told the men that worked in the scrap metal lot that it was an extra one her father had found in the house and they obviously didn't need it. However, there was a small box in the closet where all of her special items went into. Anything that made her happy, or reminded her of her mother went into that box and she would kill to keep it safe. Now she had one more addition to that box. She placed the small black journal on the top of the box and made her way over to bed carefully, Eric would freak if he woke up because she was making the floorboards squeak.

Safely on her bed, she pulled out what was now a crumbled up picture of a strange man. She studied the picture trying to figure out how in the world the two of them were related, but it didn't take much to realize why. They both shared the same very distinct jaw line, and now she also knew who to thank for her rather large eyebrows.

"I have to find you Killian," she murmured as she laid down with the picture next to her pillow, "you have to get me out of here."


	4. Chapter 4 - Yeah I know him

"Can I see it?"

"No."

"Come on Celeste, just let me see him!"

"I said no Merida…..its private."

"Come on…..maybe I might recognize the guy." She had a point. Sitting on a small bench right outside of Granny's diner, Celeste nodded silently and pulled the picture of Killian out of her pocket. A week ago, the young girl would have never allowed herself to share this secret with anyone. Yet somehow, her best friend had realized that something was a bit different and soon was invited to share in the quest to find her father. Handing the picture over to Merida, the redhead snatched it up right away and took a few seconds to look at it.

"So this is daddy huh," she said with pursed lips as she held up the picture close to Celeste's face. Before too long a large smile broke out on her face, "Yeah, you know I kind of see it. Also, now I know why you never have to worry about buying an eyebrow pencil."

"Shut up," Celeste laughed, her cheeks turning red as her hand reached out to take the picture away and look back at Merida. If it were possible, the girls had become even closer after Celeste shared her little secret, it was like some sort of mission between the girls to figure out the best way to find and meet this Killian Jones. Celeste couldn't even imagine trying to keep another secret from her friend, but she also knew that she didn't want Merida to know about her situation with Eric. She didn't need her to worry.

"Well, I can always see if mom or dad know him. You know…I really hope you find him." Again the two girls had found themselves in one of those awkward silent moments and they seemed to be happening a lot lately. One or the either would say something and then they'd just find themselves smiling stupidly at one another before turning away to awkwardly laugh it all off.

"It would be nice to find him, but right now it'd be better if we go inside and order something. I'm starving." She hadn't even planned on it, but she quickly held out her hand for Merida to grab. Normally they'd pull apart quickly after one helped the other up, but this time was different. Through the small outdoors area and into the diner they continued to hold onto each other, not like a couple but one would be able to tell that they didn't want to lose each other. As soon as they walked in, Red was waving them down to a couple bar stools near the front by her. The girls always tried to come in on Saturdays for the brunch that Granny's served and eventually they became weekend regulars for the young waitress.

"The usual ladies?"

"Yes please," Celeste smiled and handed the two small menus back to Red to place at another chair. Red quickly smiled and went about making to cups of hot tea for the girls before turning back to face them.

"How's your step-dad doing Celeste?" Red was the only one who had a hint of what was going on at home. About six months ago during one of Eric's hunting sprees Celeste had run out of food at home and began eating at the diner for every meal two days in a row. One day, she realized after she had eaten that she didn't have any money to pay and begged Red and her grandmother to forgive her. She explained that her father was struggling to make ends meet and was immediately forgiven for the mistake. After that one time, Red told her that she could always count on a meal if things ever got tough at home. Sure she hadn't told them the whole truth, but she didn't feel like she had lied about it either.

"He's uh he's gone to see if Robin Hood and his men need any help in the hunting business. Said something about offering to sell them some gear for a little extra cash." The quick nod silently told Celeste not to worry about paying for the meal and thank goodness too because she had no cash to spare right now.

"Eric's not home?" Merida's eyebrows shot up in question and Celeste nodded while silently praying for her cup of tea to get done faster. The more distractions around the less she had to talk about it.

"Uh yeah….he-he's been looking for a better job. It's just for a couple days though, he called Jefferson to let him know I'd be out there by myself and Jefferson offered to let me stay with him. I'm going to clean the house up a bit and then head over to spend some time with Grace." She felt bad lying to the girl, but she couldn't come clean about this. The town had just gotten done with all of the curses and drama and Celeste didn't need anymore. After all, she had gone this long without any help and she wasn't going to stop now.

Before any more questions could be asked, Red slid two very large plates in front of the girls. Each of them had a few of the same things with one or two differences, depending on what the girls liked. Celeste looked down at two very large and warm waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, and two slices of wheat toast and quickly began to dig in. It was mornings like this one that she loved the most; she felt like everything was going right.

"Hey maybe Red knows him!" Good feelings gone.

"Merida," Celeste hissed between bites of her waffle. She almost felt bad when Merida flushed red and turned back to her food, but this had been a secret between the girls.

"Knows who Celeste? Ohhhh is this a new guy I need to know about? You know, I really shouldn't be giving you dating advice." Now it was Celeste's turn to blush and nearly choke on her food. As she tried to choke down the last bits of bacon, she tried to think of a way to explain this supposed new "guy".

"No Red, he's uh well…he's my biological father and I just…I don't know. I just want to meet him."

"Okay…well I know pretty much the whole town. I can help you out if you want. What's his name?"

"KILLIAN," shouted Merida and grabbed her plate so she could scoot one seat further away from Celeste. Celeste was too busy shooting Merida the "I will kill you with your own bow" look to notice the shocked expression on Red's face. Finally turning to face the waitress, Celeste felt very nervous. "Is that a bad thing," she whispered and hoped that Red would tell her that everything was okay.

"Oh no…..it's just that I never really thought of Killian as the fatherly type. Celeste, if he really is your father then you might want to go about this gently okay?" Biting her lip, it seemed as if Red was trying to make some big decision but Celeste couldn't tell what it was. Whatever it was, Red must have finally made a choice because soon she was grabbing a large notepad and pen and scribbling down something that Celeste couldn't see from her chair.

"I know him," Red muttered as she quickly tore off the paper that she had been writing on and handed it to Celeste. "Lucky for you, he's not too far away. He actually has a small apartment just down the block in the same building as the Charmings. If you need an excuse to get in tell him that I sent you with a couple cups of hot cocoa." Celeste nodded and carefully took the piece of paper before nodding at Merida that it was time to leave.

"Thanks Red! Hey just put it on my dad's tab yeah," Merida said, trying to make their leaving less awkward. Red quickly smiled and nodded to the girls as they left the diner. Celeste looked down at the name of the apartment building and immediately knew where to go, but when she tried to get herself to move in that direction it just wasn't happening. She would arrive at the apartment and finally see him…..then what? He could laugh in her face or he could sit down with her and talk about the next step. What would that next step be? What if it didn't include him at all because he didn't actually want her? Did he even know her?

"I can't do this," she said between gasps of air. Celeste stood next to the white fence that surrounded Granny's and clung to it for life support while her eyes let loose to a group of tears, "Merida what if he hates me. Mom didn't even tell me why he had never met me…..maybe he doesn't want to meet me." She hadn't even begun to sob again when she felt herself being wrapped up in a hug from Merida.

"Here's what's going to happen Celeste," she heard Merida whisper into her ear, "We are going to find the sperm donor's apartment, we are going to knock on his door, you are going to explain what's going on and we'll see what happens from there." Celeste nodded numbly along with what Merida said, half pretending to listen and half clinging onto her best friend's words as if they were some new holy book. "No matter what, you and I are going to leave and we'll either celebrate with ice cream or we'll use the ice cream to make us feel better," Celeste could feel herself being gently turned to face Merida's now stern looking face, "You're not alone in this Celeste. I promise."


End file.
